Trying Again ~

Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but I will try posting one more time.

Here are a few of the pics that did not disappear from our last day in LA.

Beautiful succulent . . .

. . . and wonderful vertical planters made from old pallets.

King Harbor in Redondo Beach.

From there we headed north to Cotati to visit with DSO's son Matt and d-i-l Danielle and granddogs Rocco and Olive.

Fritz spent time helping Matt with house projects.  Danielle and I spent time at a couple antique shops.  I'll share my purchases when I am home, but saw these.  What a cool idea.  Old doorknobs attached to rebar.  Great garden decor!

We left Cotati and headed to Reno.  If it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all.  We encountered heavy rains for hours and when we were passing through Donner Pass, the check tire light popped on.  (If you are not familiar with the Donner party, hence the Donner Pass, do a Google search.  Sorry I don't know how to link something on the iPad.)  Quickly pulled off to the side of the road and discovered a rear tire was losing air.  (Tire problem #3.)  Thankfully he was able to pump the tire up to pressure and found a tire store less than 10 miles down the road.  Before that we were MANY miles from a town.  We made it there and it was discovered we indeed did have a leak.  The tire gods were smiling on us since they were able to plug the tire and we could continue on our journey.

The weather finally cleared . . . 

. . . and we made it to ~

To be continued :)

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

Blogger Issues ~

Blogger and I are just not getting along :(. I loaded lots of pictures the other day and when I went back to finish, the post was gone.  So were all the pictures that I had taken on Sunday except for a few.  Gone from my iPad AND my iPhone.  Not in the deleted file either so G.O.N.E :(.  So . . . I did an abbreviated post with the few pictures remaining.  I've published it and republished it, and it is not showing up.  I give up.  I'm crying uncle.  (Blogging from here I cannot post any pictures, and what's a post without pictures?  BLAH!). Tomorrow we are heading to Reno and beginning our journey east.  I don't know that I will even attempt to post until home again.  Thanks so much for allowing me to share our journey with you.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Pug hugs :)
Lauren

Ghost Town ~

My son Bill's passion is to explore abandoned mines; gold, silver, copper, etc.  There are thousands of abandoned mines here out west.  He has explored the area around Randsburg on a number of occasions and wanted to take us to this ghost town and show us a few of the nearby mines he has explored.

At the museum in town.

Seriously, the porta potty used in the mine.

Around the town.

Even though it was Saturday, most of the shops were closed.  This sign in the window just cracked me up.

A flower pot :)

I need one (or two) of these bottle trees.

After leaving town, we headed to one of the mines he has explored.  This is a head frame and the entrance is directly below.  

We walked around and I found some real treasures . . . lol.  Coming back to Ohio will be an old section of bed springs and some broken bottle fragments.  For grandson Jake lots of rocks, mostly different types of quartz and a piece of obsidian.  He will love them.

Heading down the road we found some abandoned miners' cabins.  They had been totally trashed and covered in graffiti.

Graffiti turtle.  I guess we could call this a "make do" . . . lol.

So happy my son shared this with us.  Tonight I had to say goodbye to him :(  It is so hard but I am so proud of the man he has become.

These orchids are in the hotel lobby.  I had to touch them to see if they were real, and yes, they are.

Tomorrow morning we are heading north to Cotati, CA, to spend a few days with Fritz's son and daughter-in-law.  Thanks so much for following me on our journey.

Thanks also for stopping by.

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

Los Angeles ~

,

Oh, I just don't understand the iPad.  Usually all my photos download from my iPhone to my IPad so I can do a blog post.  Tonight only some of them did.  Then I totally lost the post I started.  ARGH!!!  

So . . . here we go again . . . sigh.

It's so good to be in LA visiting my older son.  It has been way too long since I've seen him.  Today he was able to take us to his current job site.  He works for a high end finish carpentry company.  He is currently working in a mansion of a famous late actress.  It sits on 9 acres on a mountaintop in Beverly Hills.  The have gutted the mansion to the studs.  Very few original details remain which I find very sad.

Here is an original fireplace.  My son Bill gives you an idea as to how big the fireplace is.  The entire room was wood and it all was stripped due to lead based paint.

Fireplace details.

This was referred to as a bottle window.  Each circle looks like the bottom of a pop bottle.  (Or as many of you call it, a soda bottle.). 

Italian tiles outside the front door.

View from the back of the mansion looking at the pool and downtown LA in the distance.

Spanish moss and orchids booming in a little greenhouse.

Fern growing out the side of the greenhouse.

  

Outdoor birdcage probably 10' tall.

From there we headed to the Getty Center (www.getty.edu).

Carved ivory, from the 1500's if I remember correctly.

Cactus gardens.

View to the city.

This is the traffic my son deals with daily.  UGH!

A very cool "tree" made out of rebar.

Little succulent garden.

There was so much more to see, but we ran out of time (and energy . . . lol).

This post has about taken me forever, so I'd best quit while I still have a bit of my sanity.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Pug hugs :)

Lauren